Make up Your Mind!

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So, here goes. – My experience with booking tickets on IRCTC and what I learnt from it.

Without doubt, this has been THE craziest experience and I have no choice but to share. For the simple reason, that I sit here, with 5 confirmed tickets on the railways from Baroda to Bombay, with two people to travel.

Just as I am leaving to get a refund on my morning train ticket, I see a confirmed status. wah.

update 3: More of a realization of the tatkal tickets for 14th night, Feb 2015 which were accidentally booked on Golden temple.

And this was a saturday night ticket that I never wanted to go on!

Him: You know what? You do what you want. I’ll go 14th night.

Her: Ok.

And so, here I am. I cancelled my morning tickets to get only a 50% refund.

I am going by the night train, which means I’ll reach tomorrow morning.

My friend’s going on the night train, day after.

I learnt many things in the bargain of this experience:

Here are some pointers.

Delay of decisions can make you repent. Because, you might just lose opportunities.

Based on the tickets that ran out in the first place! Had I taken a quick decision, I’d have just bought two (or just my) night ticket!

Delay of decisions might land you with MORE than what you expected!

Like my 5 bookings!! ALl tickets that got booked overnight!

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

The “Why” part.

Why did I speak to my friend who told me that tatkal tickets are getting booked online after an hours break?

Why did I suddenly remember the friend who wanted to come along?

Why did I ask TWO friends in Bombay?

Why did I take advise from my baroda friend and not pay heed?

In short, it’s a classic case of having too many people involed in ONE small matter.

IRCTC has a connection with KARMA.

one of my reasons to go a day early, was to avoid a situation that was disturbing me emotionally. I realize that I have NO control on that 😀 I feel like IRCTC was taking the revenge by telling me: Ms. Apsara you can’t travel with that instability.

ANYTHING is Possible with DESTINY.

like the sharukh khan dialogue from Om shanti om and Paulo Coehlo’s Alchemist:

“When you really want something, the whole universe conspires to make it happen.

Well, I really, really wanted to be on a train on friday. When I booked the tatkal ticket for friday night, I really, really wanted it. By the time I decided to go in the morning, I really, really wanted the morning train.

I wanted both the things. And I din’t make up my mind.

Eventually, I decided to go this night…. eventually the decision was taken and I have no regrets about the delay in travel. But the only thing to learn here is, I had to pay a price! 😉 an extra price… for getting what I wanted, just because I wasn’t clear!

WIth all my tickets tatkal, I am paying 5 times the price to get to bombay, and no refunds.